Ottis v. State
| Decision Date | 02 March 1998 |
| Docket Number | No. S97A2005,S97A2005 |
| Citation | 496 S.E.2d 264,269 Ga. 151 |
| Parties | , 98 FCDR 737 OTTIS v. The STATE. |
| Court | Georgia Supreme Court |
Justin James Wyatt, Roman A. DeVille, DeVille, Milhollin & Voyles, Marietta, for Inez Ann Ottis.
Thomas James Charron, Dist. Atty., Debra Halpern Bernes, Asst. Dist. Atty., Marietta, Elizabeth Lewis Jaeger, Asst. Atty. Gen., Department of Law, Atlanta, Russell J. Parker, Asst. Dist. Atty., Cobb County District Attorney's Office, Nancy I. Jordan, Asst. Dist. Atty., Marietta, for the State.
Fifteen-year-old Bridgett Lee and her seven-year-old sister Britney Ikharia were found brutally murdered in the apartment they shared with their mother, Barbara Jenkins. A jury found Inez Ann Ottis guilty of the malice murders of the children. For the reasons which follow, we affirm Ottis' murder convictions. 1
The evidence at trial, construed in favor of the verdicts, established the following. On January 5, 1993, Inez Ottis asked Antonio Lowery, the man she was dating, to be involved with her in a drug deal. Inez wanted Lowery to obtain a vehicle, stolen or otherwise, to be used for the drug transaction, explaining that she did not want to use her own car. Lowery told his friend Robert Floyd about the drug deal, and Floyd agreed to steal the needed vehicle. Floyd accomplished the theft in thirty to thirty-five minutes, and Inez telephoned her brother, Rudolph Ottis, to meet the group in the stolen vehicle.
The next day, January 6, Inez and the three men assembled at her apartment. Inez made some telephone calls, at the conclusion of which Inez announced that "the lady (Barbara Jenkins) had two kilos of cocaine." Both Inez and Jenkins had connections in the drug trade, and Inez had suspected Jenkins of being involved in a theft in 1992, which had led to Inez' arrest. Inez took $2000 in cash, and the four set off for Barbara Jenkins' apartment. Rudolph Ottis and Floyd used the stolen vehicle and Inez and Lowery rode in Inez' car with Inez leading the way. The two vehicles pulled into the parking lot at Jenkins' apartment complex. Floyd and Rudolph Ottis got into Inez' car and Inez drove the group to a convenience store. Inez gave Lowery $5 and directed him to purchase duct tape. Lowery bought two rolls of the tape, handing it over to Inez, and the four returned to the apartment complex, parking where they could view Jenkins' apartment.
Inez ordered Lowery to knock on Jenkins' door. He did so, and Jenkins' daughter Bridgett came to the door. Lowery asked for Jenkins and Bridgett responded that her mother was not there, but was on her way home. Lowery told the girl that he and Inez wanted to do a drug deal with Jenkins, but Bridgett refused to let him in. Lowery returned to Inez' car, related the exchange, and described the child to Inez. Inez identified the girl as Jenkins' older daughter. Shortly thereafter, Inez went to the apartment herself, was recognized by Bridgett and was admitted. Three or four minutes later, Floyd and Rudolph Ottis went in. Finally, Lowery entered Jenkins' apartment.
When Lowery entered, he saw Bridgett on the floor next to Inez; Inez had pulled the girl's shirt up over her head while Floyd and Rudolph Ottis struggled with Bridgett to tape her wrists, ankles, and face. Lowery was directed to search the apartment; in the process, furniture was turned over and slit open. Jenkins' younger daughter Britney came out of the bath and attempted to flee to her room. Rudolph Ottis grabbed the seven-year-old, threw her on a bed, and struck her head with his fist to make her stop struggling. He then taped Britney's mouth, nose, wrists and ankles. Lowery asked what was going to happen, and Rudolph Ottis replied that the girls had to die because they had seen Inez's face. Inez watched as Rudolph got a knife from the kitchen and slashed Britney's throat. Britney fell off the bed, blood pouring from her neck. The child bled to death on the floor.
Floyd went to the living room and dragged Bridgett, already smothering to death because of the duct tape on her nose and mouth, into the other bedroom. Floyd placed the girl on the bed, and went to the kitchen for another knife. He returned, plunged the knife into Bridgett's chest, penetrating to the mattress below, and slashed her throat. Shaking violently, she fell off the bed onto the floor where she died. As she lay there, Lowery took a knife from Rudolph Ottis and stabbed Bridgett several times in the side. After they left the apartment, Inez commented to Lowery on the need for the killings, "What is done is done, they seen [my] face."
The ransacking of the apartment yielded Inez and her cohorts two ounces of cocaine and $85.
1. The evidence was sufficient to enable a rational trier of fact to find Inez Ann Ottis guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of the malice murders of Bridgett Lee and Britney Ikharia. Jackson v. Virginia, 443 U.S. 307, 99 S.Ct. 2781, 61 L.Ed.2d 560 (1979).
2. Ottis fails in her contention that the trial court improperly admitted evidence of her January 26, 1995, statements to Detective Herman in violation of Edwards v. Arizona, 451 U.S. 477, 101 S.Ct. 1880, 68 L.Ed.2d 378 (1981). Herman did not testify before the jury about the substance of the statements at issue, but merely that at one point, Ottis indicated that she was willing to tell him what happened inside the Jenkins' apartment. 2
Furthermore, at a hearing outside the jury's presence, Detective Herman's testimony established that after Ottis was arrested on the murder charges, she was advised of her Miranda rights and was transported to the police station. Ottis' handcuffs were removed and she was taken to an outer office where Herman and another detective were present. After the detectives sat down, Ottis indicated that she wanted to talk with them if her attorney was contacted. The detectives made several unsuccessful attempts to contact Ottis' attorney, and Herman returned and informed Ottis that he had been unable to reach her counsel. Ottis then asked Herman why she was being charged with two counts of murder, stating that all she had done "was wait in the car." Herman responded that he thought that the kids were murdered because they recognized somebody. Ottis replied, "[t]hat ain't no reason to kill nobody." Ottis again asked Herman why she was being charged. Herman told Ottis that they had better not talk anymore. Ottis reaffirmed that she was willing to tell the detectives what had happened in the apartment, and Herman again advised her that there should be no conversation in view of the fact that she had requested that the detectives contact her attorney.
Accepting that Ottis' initial statement that she wished to talk to the detectives if her attorney was contacted constituted a clear and unambiguous request to have counsel present so that police questioning had to cease, Herman's informing Ottis that he was unable to contact her attorney was not an impermissible initiation of questioning nor an attempt to elicit any statement by Ottis. It was simply relating the fact that Ottis' counsel could not then be reached. Ottis herself initiated the discussion with the police which led to her spontaneous and volunteered statement placing her at the scene of the crimes, thereby knowingly and intelligently waiving the right she had invoked. Edwards v. Arizona, supra, 451 U.S. at 484, 101 S.Ct. at 1884-1885; Jordan v. State, 267 Ga. 442, 445(1), 480 S.E.2d 18 (1997). Even if Herman's follow-up comment of his theory of why the children were murdered is deemed to be an "interrogation" within the meaning of Rhode Island v. Innis, 446 U.S. 291, 300-301, 100 S.Ct. 1682, 1689-1690, 64 L.Ed.2d 297 (1980), Herman's testimony failed to reveal any evidence of intent to get the accused to make an incriminating statement in response. Walton v. State, 267 Ga. 713, 718(4), 482 S.E.2d 330 (1997).
3. Inez Ottis is likewise unsuccessful in her hearsay challenge to the admission of evidence of statements by Rudolph Ottis and Robert Floyd.
State's witness Anthony London, who was Rudolph Ottis' cousin, testified that about two weeks after the murders, Rudolph Ottis visited him and confessed to him that he had killed the two children. He told London that he and Inez and two others had gone to Jenkins' apartment to commit a robbery, that Jenkins' children had seen Inez' face and therefore had to be killed, and that the robbery had yielded $85. London told his mother about Rudolph's involvement in the crimes, but the information was not related to authorities until approximately two years later.
State's witness Adolphus Hudson testified about statements made by Rudolph Ottis while the two were incarcerated together. Rudolph related to Hudson that he had not gone into the apartment or tied up or stabbed the children and had been falsely accused of murder; they had gone to the Jenkins' apartment to rob, and the children had been killed because they recognized his sister Inez, and because the children's mother was connected to very powerful people.
Finally, State's witness Wandisha Buffington, who was Robert Floyd's girlfriend, related to the jury that in January, 1995, Floyd told her that the police were looking for his friend, Rudolph Ottis and possibly for him. Floyd informed Buffington that he had stolen a car and driven Inez, Rudolph, and Lowery to an apartment. Floyd said he stayed in the car and that Inez and Lowery went...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Smith v. State
...by permitting the State to display images of photographs admitted into evidence on a 35-inch television screen. See Ottis v. State, 269 Ga. 151, 156(4), 496 S.E.2d 264 (1998). The enlargement of photographs is permitted provided that there is no distortion of the objects pictured. Id. Altho......
-
Sharpe v. State
...When Shipman's statements are properly analyzed, the relevant factors weigh heavily in favor of this reliability. Ottis v. State, 269 Ga. 151, 155-156(3), 496 S.E.2d 264 (1998); Fetty v. State, 268 Ga. 365, 371-372(7), 489 S.E.2d 813 (1997); Copeland v. State, supra at 665-666(2)(b), 469 S.......
-
Doyle v. Filson
...photographic slides are admissible evidence, allowing their projection before jury does not constitute error); Ottis v. State, 269 Ga. 151, 496 S.E.2d 264, 269 (1998)(projection method of presenting photographs of murder victim is permissible absent distortion or disproportion of what is de......
-
Arevalo v. State
...The writing bears sufficient indicia of reliability. Quintanilla v. State, supra at 22(3)(a), 537 S.E.2d 352; Ottis v. State, 269 Ga. 151, 155-156(3), 496 S.E.2d 264 (1998). In his dissenting opinion, Chief Justice Fletcher urges that, because David was engaged in plea negotiations with the......